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Ni users, have you ever had an existential crisis?

teslashock

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Ya know, the kind where you think to yourself "Why am I here? I can't really come up with a rationale for the continuation of my existence, so why does my life continue?" Do you feel like you are minutiae on the grand scheme of things? Like the Earth is just a speck of dust in the universe's elaborate lasagna dish, and anything having to do with you or the rest of its inhabitants doesn't ultimately affect the rich, bold flavor...

I was having a conversation with an INTJ friend of mine the other day, and he seemed to exhibit this kind of philosophy. It seems rather depressing to me, and it's not really something that I can analyze too much on my own, as I use microNi, if that. I can, however, begin to fathom it once it's explained to me. Anyway, I'm curious to see if you Ni users empathize with the above in any way.

I don't just mean Ni-dom/aux people either, k?
 

Domino

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I make my ENFP sister's head hurt with my Ni existential (mostly silent) freak-outs. I've explained it to her a thousand times and while she *gets* it, she stills says it's a puzzling thing and pats my head in genuine pity for my Slaughterhouse Five existence.

Ni wants to make filament connections, as the web of a spider, to and between everything. At times, its demands to KNOW and make webs becomes overpowering, and its search for importance (in every sense of the word) becomes rickety and staggers beneath what it perceives to be an impossible reality. Ni doesn't make reality relevant -it makes irreality relevant.

I've had many such discussions with my INTJ friend myself, though I think the inertia of my Fe bails me out into the arena of human contact for the sake of communion where he feels no such compelling force and gets lost to analysis. I feel despair. He feels impossibility.
 

MonkeyGrass

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I have at least 3 of those a day, no joke. They started when I was four, and haven't let up since. My theories have evolved and matured, until I've reached the point that I'm OK with existing only to comfort and enjoy life with the people around me with the time I have on earth, however long or brief. That's a good feeling. :heart:
 

teslashock

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Ni wants to make filament connections, as the web of a spider, to and between everything. At times, its demands to KNOW and make webs becomes overpowering, and its search for importance (in every sense of the word) becomes rickety and staggers beneath what it perceives to be an impossible reality. Ni doesn't make reality relevant -it makes irreality relevant.

Your whole post was glorious, btw.

But referring to the above, does your (perhaps overly hopeful) desire to attach metaphysical importance to things weigh you down? Are you typically able to attribute importance to an area in which you seek this kind importance? Are you able to mentally find the filaments and/or derive meaning from the filaments that hold the web together?
 

Domino

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So we're all inherently neurotic, MonkeyGrass? *morbid laughs* :D I'm in good company.
 

Domino

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Your whole post was glorious, btw.

Heh. Thanks. :blush: Usually it's called incomprehensible babbling. I'm moving up!

But referring to the above, does your (perhaps overly hopeful) desire to attach metaphysical importance to things weigh you down?

Yes. It does. And it's a kneejerk compulsion entirely out of my conscious control. I've said to my INFJ father on occasion that it's both our curse and our cure, blessing and bane, that hope springs eternal. Sometimes, the laceration could be avoided if only - if only - hope would die and let the sun lapse and collapse into darkness instead of holding us there forever on the bright edge of hell, feeling the heat and seeing the disaster, but never pulling back from what resurrection dreams could actually BE.

I'm glad I've had my ENFP' sister's Ne to hold me on course and yank me out of my tree by my tail when I won't or CAN'T come back down. I get caught in my own webs and drive for meaning to the point of paralysis. She's idealistic and emotional but in an entirely different way.

Are you typically able to attribute importance to an area in which you seek this kind importance?

Yes and no. I don't create what isn't there, but if things are going very very badly, I've been known to apply that Hope label to the object/situation without conscious thought. Like nothing is impossible, even when that's clearly not true. I've struggled violently with this very thing lately, and have met with limited success. Again, it helps to have others around me who are nothing like me to help bail water while I right my ship.

Frankly, Ne seems way more practical and practicable. Ni - there's many debates about its usefulness. It rides its unicorn to work.

Are you able to mentally find the filaments and/or derive meaning from the filaments that hold the web together?

Yes. It's much like staring at a tree and deciding which branches have yielded the most fruit. In bad times, it's like a rabbit warren and you're attached to the frantic rabbit as it runs further and further into turns you can never hope to count to find your way back. (My sister flushes me back out with a mind hose. *laughs*)
 

teslashock

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Frankly, Ne seems way more practical and practicable. Ni - there's many debates about its usefulness. It rides its unicorn to work.

Well, at least most Ni users reach their offices. Us Ne-doms mount our unicorns, travel halfway down the path, and end up making a wrong turn somewhere, only to find some kind of stimulus that opens up a carton of tasty creative juices (regardless of how useful or useless this creativity might be). Ultimately, we end up either late for our meeting or just don't manage to show up at all.

Anywho, your whole post was very good. Thank you for the vivid analysis. I really hope you don't let your thoughts get to you too much though. Just remember that life can be plenty meaningful by just having fun and doing what you enjoy. It doesn't have to be much more complicated than that, imho.
 
G

Glycerine

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Little flare-ups every few weeks. "Am doing the right thing w/ my life?" "What happens if I screw up now?" "How much will it impact my future?" "Is this what I really want out of life?" It's a constant tug of war between taking immediate action and being paralyzed by uncertainty and indecisiveness. There doesn't seem to be a middle ground for me in this department.
 
S

Sniffles

Guest
Ya know, the kind where you think to yourself "Why am I here? I can't really come up with a rationale for the continuation of my existence, so why does my life continue?" Do you feel like you are minutiae on the grand scheme of things? Like the Earth is just a speck of dust in the universe's elaborate lasagna dish, and anything having to do with you or the rest of its inhabitants doesn't ultimately affect the rich, bold flavor...

Oh yes, I constantly have "Ni freak-outs"(to borrow PinkPiranha's term). In fact Pink seems to have covered this rather well. And yes like her, I need a Ne companion to snap me out of it often.
 

Bamboo

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every once in a while. it's my tertiary. (or at, least in theory. I'm istp. I haven't taken a function order test, so I don't know where it really ranks.)

it could go either way really. so what if it's meaningless. either i can be really depressed or i can just shrug and say "might as well pay attention to what's in front of me, i don't know what it really is but hey, it's there."

i have a running joke with my infj mom where i play the part of some macabre frenchman. "How was your day?" she'll ask. "I searched" I tell her, and wait for a confused look on her face that says "For what?". "For meaning in this black pit of despair, an endless, wandering journey with no beginning and no end. Then I went biking."

She thinks I'm a little shit.
 

Snow Turtle

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Not an Ni-user but if I had to choose between Ne and Ni on which I tend to exhibit more, it'd definitely be the latter.

In a nut shell. Yes, these thoughts pass through me lots of time. What's the purpose behind living? Or occasionally the more depressing slant: Why isn't my life like the movies? Why does it seem so rubbish and directionless.

One friend think I'm pessimistic for asking these questions, but for me, it's a very important question that I think all people should seriously question themselves on. Lots of Js are inclined to do things with a purpose, so I'd imagine that this is a topic that comes up frequently within their minds, because if there's no purpose, why do something? Every action requires some form of motivation.

For the non-religious/spiritual. It basically comes down to accepting that we create our own goals, while enjoying the process. And asking ourselves: why do people feel the strong need for a higher meaning to it? Which goes back to the sentence above. =/
 

teslashock

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i have a running joke with my infj mom where i play the part of some macabre frenchman. "How was your day?" she'll ask. "I searched" I tell her, and wait for a confused look on her face that says "For what?". "For meaning in this black pit of despair, an endless, wandering journey with no beginning and no end. Then I went biking."

Marvelous. Life lessons from an ISTP :headphne:
 

SillySapienne

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Not an Ni user, but rather am a cognizant, sentient human being, and thus being so have most definitely experienced, (and continue to experience), existential crises.

C'mon now!!!
 

teslashock

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Not an Ni user, but rather am a cognizant, sentient human being, and thus being so have most definitely experienced, (and continue to experience), existential crises.

C'mon now!!!


Was that supposed to be some kind of an implication that I'm assuming only Ni users have existential crises? I was never trying to get at that. I just think that Ni users would probably be the most suited for analyzing/describing the kind of thought processes that define and/or lead to an existential crisis. I'm also interested in seeing how these "crises" are manifested in people that have a strong Ni tilt. Geesh...
 

SillySapienne

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Sorry, if I came across hostile.

I just think that any thinking, feeling human being will naturally experience at least one existential crisis in his/her life.

:)
 

teslashock

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Sorry, if I came across hostile.

I just think that any thinking, feeling human being will naturally experience at least one existential crisis in his/her life.

:)

I'm not offended.

And again, I'm sure that non-Ni users will have these same kinds of crises, but I'm willing to bet that Ni people are more capable of understanding/describing/dealing with them, that's all...
 

SillySapienne

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Pish-poshesist!!!

Fi users would best be able to describe the existential crises of being human, I would surmise.
 
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